


catching light

by pistolgrip



Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Ear Piercings, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, also unabashedly horny because it's siesix established relationship, the usual, yes! there IS a sparring scene! how did you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:47:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25789843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pistolgrip/pseuds/pistolgrip
Summary: The magical properties of Siete's new earrings (and the magic they have on Six, too).
Relationships: Siete | Seofon/Six | Seox (Granblue Fantasy)
Kudos: 36





	catching light

**Author's Note:**

> i miss them. also for context, i rolled matching dodge/counter on siesix ... thanks you two  
> edit: [BILLIE FANART LOOK AT SIX'S BIG OL' EYES I'M CRYIN](https://twitter.com/astrallevin/status/1292213518251577345)

Esser, while debriefing her reconnaissance mission to Siete, passes him a pair of earrings for him to keep. The jewel glows as though light is coming from within instead of reflecting that of the meeting room. He picks one of them up between his fingers and holds it up to the light, and his suspicions grow.

"This is sweet of you," he says, raising an eyebrow at her, "but I've never been one for jewellery."

She gives him a look that says _Not a souvenir_ , half smiling. Of course he knows it's more than that; even through his gloves, he can feel the itch of magic contained in the hooks, wanting skin against its metal to show its power. "It dropped from one of those dragons that appeared recently," Esser tells him once he puts the earring down. "It's already been inspected and doesn't seem to be harmful, but only responds for those with a similar affinity."

"Ah, so between me and Nio, I'm the guinea pig!" he chirps before turning his head to the side, pointing at his ear. "But you see the problem."

"Of course." Esser stands with a sigh, dusting off her pants. "There's no rush. Answers need not be immediate, and the next excursion won't be for some time—"

"But hey, live a little, right?" This thing is _tiny_. Whatever magic is in it, it can't hurt him. "Can't be that bad to do a piercing at home."

Esser looks like she disagrees with that greatly, which is how he finds himself in the med bay a few hours later with her and Song hovering over him, the latter telling him that he's really dumb for doing this here instead of somewhere decent in town. Funf waves a lazy hand for her veil against potential infection for him, sitting on the counter opposite him and kicking her legs, and Quatre is leaning against the doorjamb, watching the entire thing with a smile that's waiting for something to go wrong.

"Okie-dokie," Song says after marking a dot on both of his earlobes. The syllables stretch her lips like she needed any more help putting on a grimace for this whole mistake. Esser hands her the sterilized needle. "No take-backs."

"There might be a chance for some take-backs," Funf says in her very matter-of-fact preteen way, although Siete supposes she does know a lot compared to other people her age. "If he regrets it fast enough, I might be able to do something about it—"

"Let him learn his lesson." Quatre cuts her off, smirking as the needle pierces through his left earlobe.

* * *

The earrings aren't as bad as he thought, mostly because the early stages of maintenance are fast-forwarded with Funf's help.

As Esser and her team anticipated, there _is_ magic in these earrings, one that he can feel now that the gems and their hooks are in direct contact with his skin. It doesn't so much become a part of his body as it does enhance some unknown parts of it; he feels remnants once he removes them, but it fades quickly. All in all, a small (but not _weak_ ) augmentation. He's _pretty_ sure nothing will go wrong if he accidentally breaks it; whatever magic is released should just dissipate.

For the next few hours, Song, the twins, and Funf watch him carefully. On one hand, he appreciates the extra set of eyes making sure he won't get possessed by strange, ancient magic in the form of wearable items—but he's fine, _really_.

He can feel that something changes, but he's not entirely what. Probably something related to battle, considering its source. He doesn't have time to test that past a few quick spars with Quatre before they have other things to do, and he makes a note to further investigate his increased dexterity later.

And then, later that night, Six comes home.

Siete's lying in bed, waiting for sleep to come, when he hears the door to their room open. This is normal. Six comes home late from a mission, usually by design, because he still likes operating at night. He'll strip himself of his uniform, wash up, and then slide into bed beside Siete without a word. Sometimes Siete is awake for this ritual of theirs, and sometimes he isn't, but whatever happens in between, they'll usually end up wake together.

Tonight, he's awake. Tonight, he also hears the exact moment that Six's shuffling routine to cleanse himself (not _clean_ himself, _cleanse_ himself. _Of the darkness_ is implied) is interrupted by his revelation of what Siete got into earlier that day. The earrings are hard to miss. The emerald green of the gem is garish, and contrasting it against his hair colour helps that.

Six stops and stares. His stare has always had weight to it. "Siete."

He smiles to himself and says nothing.

With a small sigh, Six continues with his routine. He crawls into bed facing Siete, who lifts his arm up for Six to snuggle under, and—ah, finally. He feels a set of curious, warm fingers trailing up the side of his neck and hovering just above the earrings. "Hope you washed up properly, love, I don't need risk of infection."

He cracks open one of his eyes to see Six's eyes narrow, examining the jewellery. "As if you didn't ask Funf for help for minimal maintenance."

"Caught me."

Six sighs, closing his eyes. "If you get infected, that's your own fault," he says, but pulls his fingers away. Siete kisses the space between his eyebrows and drifts off.

* * *

It's not out of the ordinary for Six to stare a lot, and not just at Siete. Since he's been used to hiding his face under his mask for his entire life, he's _really_ used to making whatever expression he wants underneath it, as well as looking anywhere he wants with as much (perhaps misplaced) intensity that he wants. It was disconcerting at first for Siete to realize that Six's eyes were just as intense as the ones of his mask, but these days, he considers it a cute quirk of his.

"Pretend you enjoy the attention less," Quatre says after he pretends to barf loudly into his juice box.

"No." Siete turns his head and winks at Six, who is in earshot of the _entire_ conversation.

In fact, he's standing less than a stride away, glaring at Siete's earrings instead of looking at the cupboards through which he's searching for snacks. He's not embarrassed about the comment about paying attention to Siete in the slightest, which means that he's _really_ deep in his thoughts. "It's infuriating," Six says, completely a propos to nothing but the turmoil of his own mind. "Those thing are unnecessary by virtue of being purely cosmetic. They _will_ cause you pain in battle if an enemy decides to take advantage of this weakness."

"I'm flattered that you think I look good with jewellery," Siete purrs teasingly, basking in the little annoyed noise Six makes.

"I've said nothing of the sort."

"I can read between the lines. But it's not actually cosmetic. Wanna find out?"

"Get me out of here," Quatre grumbles as he hops off the counter with a glass of juice in hand and stalks out of the kitchen. "I am in a living hell."

* * *

It's a good thing Siete has a willing partner, because he's nothing if thorough about his research. Or at least, he tries to be. It doesn't take much convincing for him to get Six to the training room to figure out the extent of the earrings' power.

As usual, they help each other stretch after warming up. Tension between the two of them always starts here, like they're both expecting things that _aren't_ a fight to come to them at some point. Siete holds back when the Eternals are around, but when it's just the two of them, he lets all his touches linger.

Six always responds in kind, whether he knows it or not. Siete's sitting on the floor with his legs spread out, letting out a satisfied groan when Six places both of his palms on his shoulder blades to push him forward until he's nearly lying with his chest to the ground. The fabric of his compression shirt heats quickly under Six's palms; his fingers twitch with the good ache spreading through his body.

Outside the training room, he hears the rest of the Eternals bustling about. There's a lot of them at the base today, but they're all avoiding the training room like they just _know_. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth or whatever, Siete lets out a _louder_ groan when Six grabs his wrist, just enough to make himself laugh when Six is clearly displeased about it.

"You're insufferable," Six says. He sighs for a very, very long time, like he's practicing deep breathing before the battle, except he never remembered to breathe in at all.

"I always feel nice and refreshed after you help me out." Siete stands and unsheathes his sword. "Like I've just taken a really hot shower. Or come out of the sauna."

He waits a beat. Six pauses from equipping his silver gauntlets, the fingers tapered to claws for his individual fingers. Oh, good, it's a _close-contact_ fight. His grin widens the longer Six frowns at him, his nose scrunching as if to say, _Hurry up, I know you've got something else._

"Or," Siete continues, "like I just came and I'm riding the post-nut high—"

" _Enough_." Six rolls his eyes, which is more of a signal than any for them to start.

Like yesterday, Siete doesn't notice _that_ much of a difference at first. They meet each other the same way, metal scraping against metal; for all of Six's staring, he's good at ignoring Siete's distractions for fights. He's too used to his bullshit in battles now, which is disappointing, because it's always fun when he can rile Six up, but he's definitely not immune. Siete likes it better when he's competent, anyway. Makes things more fun.

With Six as his opponent, parts of his strategy change, especially with Six fighting in a way that brings them closer to each other. His claws form around his hands, and he approaches like he wants to make good on the promise of ripping the earrings out to teach him a lesson; as a result, Siete's movements are much smaller, using a lighter blade to fight.

All of that in place means he can tell the second that the earring's effects activate in him. His dodges are faster, and he keeps his balance when he swings for a counterattack that should have him flat on his ass. Even Six is surprised by this, his visible eye widening before he dodges _that_ counterattack and gives him a biting punch in the gut for his troubles. The punch itself clumsy, and Siete can tell it's Six's reaction to something completely unexpected.

After that, there's no mistake for either of them. They're back to being evenly matched once Siete gets used to how the magic is improving his dexterity for counterattacks, and Six figures out patterns and catches his blade. It's not consistent for Siete, but he can feel the distinct tingle of magical energy every time he can get one over Six and counterattack, rushing through his body fast for him to react.

Six sucks air in through his gritted his teeth, just enough to show fangs. "It would be trivial to rip the earring out. The pain would distract you," he mutters, sizing Siete up.

"But it wouldn't be fair, would it?" He charges at him, a measured response against exchanged words. Six deflects it, but doesn't counterattack. They stand back and watch each other again.

"In a real battle, enemies wouldn't care about _fair_." His voice deepens, warm with a certain kind of amusement—one that's always at Siete's expense, the auditory version of Six tilting his chin up at him. Siete's not embarrassed about the effect it has on him.

"Enemies wouldn't care, no." He feels his own lips curl into an impish smile. "But _you_ would."

They don't stop to talk any longer. Siete knows _exactly_ how this one's gonna end with the lopsided smirk Six shoots him.

The magic adds just a drop of unpredictability to his movements, and Six isn't as good with unpredictability, especially from someone he's used to—he's great at dissecting the honed skill behind someone's quick actions, where they've come from and how it changes the way the move, but deviation always throws him off.

In the end, Siete wins, but Six doesn't seem particularly bothered, even with his back on the ground. Must be balanced out by the fact that Siete's sitting in his lap. Six chuckles, and the fact that Siete can feel it more than hear it tells them everything they need to know about who _really_ wins.

"You win." Six grumbles the words out, putting on airs of annoyance merely because it's part of the tradition when he loses to Siete. His voice is heady with exertion and, again, probably the fact that Siete's sitting in his lap. "However, if you grow complacent, don't come crying to me. Your new habits can be learnt."

"Yeah, sure, rematch and all that," Siete says, licking his lips. "But I can have this win for now. Give me _that_ much, at least."

"What, is that all?" Much like the night before, Six lifts a hand up to trace the side of his neck—but this time, instead of soft fingers and a curious touch, it's with cool metal and sharp points that threaten to cut him apart. Instinctively, he tilts his head to give Six access in an action that's familiar to both of them; usually, when he gets to this point of teasing obedience, it's because Six has his mouth there instead of his own weapons. Siete's not picky. It's still Six, all the way down.

He shivers when Six traces a light line with his claws, starting at the side of his neck up to the sensitive spot behind his ear. Siete breathes out a laugh, keeping his voice steady as he asks back, "You offering?" He settles his weight in Six's lap, just enough to tease friction on him. It's always worth it for Six's twitchy frown where he's trying to pretend Siete is annoying because his attempts to turn him on are _not_ working, _absolutely not_.

With a displeased noise, he scratches a line with his claws into the skin of Siete's neck, enough to sting and leave red marks. He groans, letting his eyes flutter closed—but not before he sees Six's eyebrow twitch.

He grins. Today's battles with Six are two for two in Siete's favour, then.

**Author's Note:**

> tags: alternate universe - canon divergence (esser is wearing pants), alternate universe - canon divergence (extremely uncommon items are implied to have much higher drop rates than their official in-game statistic and reader should not be disappointed because they took this fic's word over that of a drop table), alternate universe - canon divergence (do not actually use this as any sort of guide to piercing your ears at home for the love of god?)


End file.
